Archive for the 'mydreamapp' Category

MacHeist is now live on an invitation only basis. Like Gmail, invited people will be able to invite their friends. It seems to be another Phill Ryu and friends initiative, with some nice graphics, and upcoming cheap/free mac shareware.

Which segues nicely into Pzizz. I was given a free license by voting in the MyDream App competition. Initially I was very skeptical, given how poorly their webpage reads. “Following great success with pzizz hardware we have now developed pzizz software, powered by pzizz nap technology™.”. Aha! I don’t see… I downloaded it only to find that it comes as an installer package which makes it impossible to know where it’s installing itself . So much for first impressions!

Trying it out reveals its function: it is a mashup of various relaxation techniques, namely the Alexander technique, autosuggestion, binaural tones overlaid with your standard soothing asian bell music…

But, unlike most of the free software I’ve tried, this one has survived on my hard-drive because I actually use it. It works! I perceive the low frequency binaural tone to be moving around inside my head, but it causes me to start falling asleep. At the end of the nap it wakes you back up.

So why use it? Sometimes I work late at night until I fix some bug, but I make breakfast for my wife at 6:45am. Once I’ve woken up I can’t sleep during the day. It’s too bright and I have too much energy even just to lie down… I feel like getting on. Meditating is an option, but sometimes I’m too tired to do that too. I think Pzizz helps me because I feel that I am doing something (relaxing) rather that nothing (wasting time). After 20 minutes I usually feel refreshed enough to get on with my day, or to go meditate.

Just for fun, I wrote up some of my own ideas that I would like, but do not have the time to code myself.

After considering the developer’s view, it’s interesting being on the user’s side of the equation: I can leave the worrying about how it could be done to someone else and focus on the core idea. But on the other hand, I’m concerned that if the idea does win, the programmer might screw it up (see it differently).

I hope one of my ideas gets chosen. It could be quite an interesting experience. And I could use a MacBook myself